As a result of an expanding school system in Sri Lanka, a demand arose for an increasing number of professional educators. To meet this need, untrained nongraduate persons were recruited into the teaching service. This paper describes the Department of Distance Education (DDE), an organization charged with the planning and implementatiion of initial professional teacher education courses, using the distance mode, to train non-graduate inservice teachers. The DDE's responsibilities are presented in terms of its seven main components: (1) student management--recruits students, tutors, and correspondence teachers, and records and monitors student progress; (2) course development--prepares and revises learning materials; (3) staff development--plans, implements, and follows up on staff development programs; (4) course production--produces and distributes learning materials; (5) study support--supervises and coordinates guidance and counseling and monitors assignments; (6) evaluation and research--prepares follow-up work for final examinations, conducts the practical examinations, evaluates the program, and collects and disseminates distance education literature; and (7) the computer section--computerizes data pertaining to distance education students and personnel, stores and distributes learning materials, evaluates research, and assists in word processing. (LL)